Made New

 When the Lord of the Universe promises that He is "making all things new," (Rev. 21:5) that promise includes me. God is engaged in the resurrecting business, of taking the old, the shameful, the dark, the painful and turning it into a glorious masterpiece of beauty and hope. Such transformations do not occur of the human will. One cannot change themselves and suddenly desert their desperate past for a life of joy and fulfillment. Only God can do such a thing. As He so mercifully has said He will, He continues to say to anyone who will believe and come to Him, "I will give [you] and undivided heart and put a new spirit within [you]; I will remove from [you] [your] heart of stone and give [you] a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19). None of us can deny that God has the right to say the worst about us…and He does know the worst about us! He sees every ill thought or act we've ever done and knew we'd commit it since before the dawning of time! And yet, in spite of that fact, He mercifully offers us the promise of redemption. Because of Him, we can be made new. 

 How often I must be reminded of the simple fact that He has, and still is, carrying on this transformative work within me…that I am not who I once was and that He doesn't see me the way I sometimes want to see myself. I have been given a new identity that isn't defined by my mistakes but by His perfection. God's grace has met my failures, and it is a glorious doing!